"Mängden olja är viktig."

Translation: The amount of oil is important.

[bigswedeej]

Mängden öl också

[pipthevaliant]

I'm a bit lost when it comes to using mängd, nummer, tal and antal. I can see some differences, but mostly, those guys just seem like an awful lot of words meaning number/amount! Maybe there are even a few more words with that meaning that I can't remember or don't know about:)
So...some hjälp would be great!

[jruota]

I am learning Swedish myself, so this might be wrong. Use at your own risk.

"Nummer" is number, like the number players wear on their jerseys. You would not use "nummer" to describe an amount (like "there is a big number of people in the streets"), but for phone numbers, ID numbers, actual numbers (number four), etc.

One would use "mängd" for things that cannot be counted (flour, sugar, oil, etc.) or for things where the accurate number is not known (a lot of people).

"Antal" end "tal" are four countable things (apples, cars, horses, shirts, etc.), the real amount does not necessarily have to be known.

Would be great if a native speaker could weigh in.

[fuchsbai]

i don't understand the grammar here...anyone who may help?

[Lundgren8]

In these kind of partitive constructions, Swedish doesn’t use a preposition like English uses of:

• Ett glas vatten. = A glass of water.
• En tunna mjöd. = A barrel of mead.
• En flaska vin. = A bottle of wine.

It’s the same with mängd (amount).

• En mängd olja. = An amount of oil.
• Mängden olja. = The amount of oil.
• Mängden olja är viktig. = The amount of oil is important.

And viktig agrees with mängd since it is an en-word.

Does that make more sense?

[fuchsbai]

one more question, if I want to say it is the amount that matters, rather than the oil that matters, shall I still stay with the sentence?

[Lundgren8]

Yeah, you’d put emphasis on the different words respectively.

[jaiirapetjan]

Thanks for the grammar Lundgren. You mentioned that viktig agrees with mängd since it's an en-word; how would the sentence be for an ett word? Mängdet vatten är viktiget?

[Zmrzlina]

No, mängd is a noun, it does not change like that. Viktig refers back to mängd, so it works the same with ett-words.

"Mängden vatten är viktig" would it be. :)

[Lundgren8]

• Provet är mycket viktigt. (The exam is very important.)

It’s a regular neuter ending of just adding -t.

[jaiirapetjan]

Ah, yes, of course. Somehow mängd sounded like många so I was thinking it was an adjective. Can you suggest a sentence with an ett word so we can see how viktig changes?

[fuchsbai]

thanks, now it becomes quite easy to remember.

[Els477843]

But: tillräcklig med!

[James704885]

Makes sense but HOW do you know WHEN to use it and when not to

[Olesja386275]

Why without AV?

[devalanteriel]

Swedish doesn't use av for most constructions where English does - including here.

[Olesja386275]

Thank you!!

[Ant236487]

I know context is everything, but could viktig here also be the equivalent of ‘significant’ as in ‘large’?

[devalanteriel]

No, Swedish doesn't have that sense of it.

[AnaBird2]

So is "mängt" --> amount/(of) and "antal" --> number/(of)?

[devalanteriel]

mängd, but yes. :)